Category Archives: Games

Jan 04 2010
Games

Dragon Age: Updates

I almost hate to admit it but I may have reached that quitting point about six hours into Dragon Age: Origins.

Spoiler alert.  You may want to not read this.  For courtesy’s sake, I’m putting in a cut and all story related issues will be afterwards.

It’s not that I dislike Dragon Age: Origins.  In fact, I really like the decision making.  They have done a great job with setting up options that do not fall into the Moralistic Good and Diabolically Evil categories.  Most of the time, they merely present you with possible solutions.

And it’s hard to say where the paths will lead.  Sure, you could solve a problem the most expedient way, but there may have to be sacrifices.  Alternatively, you could solve the problem in a Chantry approved fashion and, well, there may still have to be sacrifices, but at least you did it in such a way that the Maker approves.

I applaud them for that.  It makes the virtual decisions feel like they have true impact in the virtual world.

All right.  It’s going to get very “in game” with terms and story so don’t continue if you’ve got a thing for spoilers.

Continue reading →

Dec 29 2009
Games

Dragon Age: Origins

I have this on again, off again relationship with any game that features the Role Playing Game genre.

While I do like the stories, it’s quite often that I’ll get about 14 hours in before I find that I’m no longer engaged, and the gameplay isn’t enough for me to continue.

This has happened to me across all platforms and all varying types of RPGs.  It’s happened with Mass Effect, Fallout 3, Chrono Cross, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, The Legend Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Final Fantasy VIII through XII*, Brave Story, Rune Factory: Frontier, Persona 3, Baldur’s Gate, Oblivion,Fable II, The Witcher, Shadow Hearts, and whatever top rated, critically acclaimed or friend recommended game with the RPG acronym as one of its genre descriptors you want to add to the list, it’s probably on there as well. Continue reading →

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Sep 09 2009
Games

Nine, nine, ninety-nine to nine, nine, oh-nine

It’s been ten years since the midnight I liberated a chair from the Pentagon City food court and parked myself in front of the Electronics Boutique.

For the Sega Dreamcast.

A revolutionary console at the time, it had the unfortunate timing of being released within a year of the PlayStation 2’s North American release.  It really heralded the dawn of Online Connectivity.  It shipped with a modem and I eventually upgraded mine to an Ethernet module.  Now it’s hard to imagine a modern console without an online component.

But there I was, lined up in a food court with about a hundred or so other people.  Then midnight came and the line was processed entirely within a couple of hours.  I came away with the Dreamcast itself, a copy of Soul Calibur and the Sonic game, a Visual Memory Unit and a second controller for Soul Calibur.  I have some fond, fond memories of Soul Calibur.

Sonic, not so much.

Waiting in line for midnight launch of a a new piece of hardware was just one of those things I did when I was in my mid twenties.  Now, it’s not something I’d do again, like sleeping on the street for the release of a movie.

With video games, I feel like I’m not that crazy, although there are friends of mine who will disagree.  These are the same friends who, thankfully have not scheduled an intervention.

Sometimes, when I look at the receipts from those days, I wish they had.

Aug 26 2009
Games, Technology

Champions Online

I’ve been playing the Champions Online Beta now for a couple of days and I can honestly say that I am probably going to get my money’s worth.  Especially since I went ahead and dropped the money for the lifetime subscription.

That is, unless it folds in six months.

Champions hopefully, will not fold in six months.  The game is fun, and while it is far from perfect, I like the character customization, the power selection options and the gameplay. They’ve added blocking to the MMO formula, and in a surprise move, it’s not simply a stance you take.  It’s an active skill that you hold down before an attack lands.

So in order to be successful, selective use of blocking is required.  It took me a while to get used to pressing block and not waiting for the background dice to roll a “miss.”  Once I figured that out, I had a great time figuring out the timing and mitigating damage in between my attacks and enemy attacks.  It’s a simple mechanic, but one that keeps you actively involved in the combat.  So it gives the game more of an action RPG feel.  This is in contrast to the typical “click buttons until the cooldowns are over then click them again” mechanic prevalent in most MMOs.

Not that Champions is not an MMO.  It has the social aspect of teaming, loot, leveling, and everything that one expects from that genre.  Unfortunately, the beta also had the unexplained crashes, lockups, and server hangups that one also expects from that genre.

I feel like I’m in the same car, only there’s been an engine swap and there’s a new coat of paint.  Which isn’t surprising considering the other product that Cryptic developed was another Superhero themed MMO called City of Heroes.

Jun 04 2009
Games

SONY Keynote

I wasn’t too impressed with the SONY keynote.  Even the bits that were impressive were mainly tech demos that are years and years away from being implemented.  While interesting and kind of awesome, they’re just technical demos.  I didn’t see a game here, but I’m hopeful that in two years or so there will be something worth playing down the road.

Not too pleased with the PSP GO price point, I think I’ll stick with the PSP-2000 for now, clunky as it may seem in comparison.  Reading the reviews, it looks like PSP GO enthusiasts are in for a bit of retraining on the button layout.

Overall: Meh.

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